PLUS: PRO FOOTBALL

PLUS: PRO FOOTBALL; Derrick Thomas Is Hurt in Accident

Published: January 24, 2000

Derrick Thomas, a nine-time Pro Bowl linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, was seriously injured in a one-car accident on an icy road in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday afternoon that killed one of his close friends.

Television reports said the 33-year-old Thomas, one of the National Football League's most dominant defensive players, broke his back. But a team spokesman and a spokeswoman at Liberty Hospital north of Kansas City declined to confirm that.

Thomas and his companions were en route to Kansas City International Airport to fly to St. Louis for the Buccaneers-Rams National Football Conference championship game when their car rolled over several times on a snowy highway about 1:30 p.m.

The dead man was identified as Michael Tellis, 49, of Kansas City, Kan., who helped Thomas set up projects such as a charity golf tournament that had become an annual event in the area. Thomas and Tellis were both thrown from the car.

An icy snow began falling in Kansas City around noon. The weather was also being blamed for a pile-up on Interstate 29 northwest of Kansas City in which eight deaths had been confirmed by last night.

Thomas, who became an immediate star after being taken in the first round of the 1989 draft, has spent all 11 years of his N.F.L. career with the Chiefs and was an All-Pro in his first nine seasons after an All-American career at Alabama. In just his second season, he set the N.F.L. single-game record with seven sacks against Seattle.